The Secret Adversary

Agatha Christie

Description

Agatha Christie’s deft skill in plotting is on full display in the first adventure of Tommy and Tuppence, with seemingly disconnected events revealing a complex web of intrigue. Behind the plot is a formidable foe, a mysterious figure whose identity seems impossible to determine and whose plans include murder.

Tommy Beresford and "Tuppence" Cowley’s new firm, Young Adventurers Ltd opens for business only to have their first customer drop out of sight at the mere mention of a name. Careful investigation reveals connections between a missing survivor of the torpedoed Lusitania, documents highly compromising to the British government and a potentially catastrophic plot masterminded by a very dangerous man whose identity is known to no one living. The novel first appeared in 1922 and was greeted by reviews marveling at the author’s masterful concealment of the villain’s identity, some going as far as to say that unless the reader peeked at the final few pages there was no way to know it, making this a truly secret adversary. Appearing as silent movie in 1928 this was the first of the author’s novels to be made into a film. Although overshadowed by Christie’s better known sleuths, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence were her favorite creations and her enthusiasm for the couple and their adventures is transparent on the page.

With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Secret Adversary is both modern and readable.

Sujets

• Policier & Thriller
• Thriller
• International Mystery
• International Crime
• Detective
• Mystery
• Paris
• Fiction
• London

Informations

• Publié par: Mint Editions
• Date de parution: 17 novembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781513268163
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Secret Adversary
Agatha Christie
 
 
The Secret Adversary was first published in 1922.
This edition published by Mint Editions 2020.
ISBN 9781513266039 | E-ISBN 9781513268163
Published by Mint Editions®
minteditionbooks.com
Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens
Project Manager: Gabrielle Maudiere
Design & Production: Rachel Lopez Metzger
Typesetting: Westchester Publishing Services
 
C ONTENTS P ROLOGUE   1. T HE Y OUNG A DVENTURERS , L TD .   2. M R . W HITTINGTON ’ S O FFER   3. A S ET B ACK   4. W HO IS J ANE F INN ?   5. M R . J ULIUS P. H ERSHEIMMER   6. A P LAN OF C AMPAIGN   7. T HE H OUSE IN S OHO   8. T HE A DVENTURES OF T OMMY   9. T UPPENCE E NTERS D OMESTIC S ERVICE 10. E NTER S IR J AMES P EEL E DGERTON 11. J ULIUS T ELLS A S TORY 12. A F RIEND IN N EED 13. T HE V IGIL 14. A C ONSULTATION 15. T UPPENCE R ECEIVES A P ROPOSAL 16. F URTHER A DVENTURES OF T OMMY 17. A NNETTE 18. T HE T ELEGRAM 19. J ANE F INN 20. T OO L ATE 21. T OMMY M AKES A D ISCOVERY 22. I N D OWNING S TREET 23. A R ACE A GAINST T IME 24. J ULIUS T AKES A H AND 25. J ANE ’ S S TORY 26. M R . B ROWN 27. A S UPPER P ARTY AT THE S AVOY 28. A ND A FTER
 
P ROLOGUE
I t was 2 P.M. on the afternoon of May 7, 1915. The Lusitania had been struck by two torpedoes in succession and was sinking rapidly, while the boats were being launched with all possible speed. The women and children were being lined up awaiting their turn. Some still clung desperately to husbands and fathers; others clutched their children closely to their breasts. One girl stood alone, slightly apart from the rest. She was quite young, not more than eighteen. She did not seem afraid, and her grave, steadfast eyes looked straight ahead.
“I beg your pardon.”
A man’s voice beside her made her start and turn. She had noticed the speaker more than once amongst the first-class passengers. There had been a hint of mystery about him which had appealed to her imagination. He spoke to no one. If anyone spoke to him he was quick to rebuff the overture. Also he had a nervous way of looking over his shoulder with a swift, suspicious glance.
She noticed now that he was greatly agitated. There were beads of perspiration on his brow. He was evidently in a state of overmastering fear. And yet he did not strike her as the kind of man who would be afraid to meet death!
“Yes?” Her grave eyes met his inquiringly.
He stood looking at her with a kind of desperate irresolution.
“It must be!” he muttered to himself. “Yes—it is the only way.” Then aloud he said abruptly: “You are an American?”
“Yes.”
“A patriotic one?”
The girl flushed.
“I guess you’ve no right to ask such a thing! Of course I am!”
“Don’t be offended. You wouldn’t be if you knew how much there was at stake. But I’ve got to trust some one—and it must be a woman.”
“Why?”
“Because of ‘women and children first.’ ” He looked round and lowered his voice. “I’m carrying papers—vitally important papers. They may make all the difference to the Allies in the war. You understand? These papers have got to be saved! They’ve more chance with you than with me. Will you take them?”
The girl held out her hand.
“Wait—I must warn you. There may be a risk—if I’ve been followed. I don’t think I have, but one never knows. If so, there will be danger. Have you the nerve to go through with it?”
The girl smiled.
“I’ll go through with it all right. And I’m real proud to be chosen! What am I to do with them afterwards?”
“Watch the newspapers! I’ll advertise in the personal column of the Times , beginning ‘Shipmate.’ At the end of three days if there’s nothing—well, you’ll know I’m down and out. Then take the packet to the American Embassy, and deliver it into the Ambassador’s own hands. Is that clear?”
“Quite clear.”
“Then be ready—I’m going to say good-bye.” He took her hand in his. “Good-bye. Good luck to you,” he said in a louder tone.
Her hand closed on the oilskin packet that had lain in his palm.
The Lusitania settled with a more decided list to starboard. In answer to a quick command, the girl went forward to take her place in the boat.
 
Chapter 1
T HE Y OUNG A DVENTURERS , L TD .
“ T ommy, old thing!”
“Tuppence, old bean!”
The two young people greeted each other affectionately, and momentarily blocked the Dover Street Tube exit in doing so. The adjective “old” was misleading. Their united ages would certainly not have totalled forty-five.
“Not seen you for simply centuries,” continued the young man. “Where are you off to? Come and chew a bun with me. We’re getting a bit unpopular here—blocking the gangway as it were. Let’s get out of it.”
The girl assenting, they started walking down Dover Street towards Piccadilly.
“Now then,” said Tommy, “where shall we go?”
The very faint anxiety which underlay his tone did not escape the astute ears of Miss Prudence Cowley, known to her intimate friends for some mysterious reason as “Tuppence.” She pounced at once.
“Tommy, you’re stony!”
“Not a bit of it,” declared Tommy unconvincingly. “Rolling in cash.”
“You always were a shocking liar,” said Tuppence severely, “though you did once persuade Sister Greenbank that the doctor had ordered you beer as a tonic, but forgotten to write it on the chart. Do you remember?”
Tommy chuckled.
“I should think I did! Wasn’t the old cat in a rage when she found out? Not that she was a bad sort really, old Mother Greenbank! Good old hospital—demobbed like everything else, I suppose?”
Tuppence sighed.
“Yes. You too?”
Tommy nodded.
“Two months ago.”
“Gratuity?” hinted Tuppence.
“Spent.”
“Oh, Tommy!”
“No, old thing, not in riotous dissipation. No such luck! The cost of living—ordinary plain, or garden living nowadays is, I assure you, if you do not know ______ ”
“My dear child,” interrupted Tuppence, “there is nothing I do not know about the cost of living. Here we are at Lyons’, and we will each of us pay for our own. That’s it!” And Tuppence led the way upstairs.
The place was full, and they wandered about looking for a table, catching odds and ends of conversation as they did so.
“And—do you know, she sat down and cried when I told her she couldn’t have the flat after all.” “It was simply a bargain , my dear! Just like the one Mabel Lewis brought from Paris ______ ”
“Funny scraps one does overhear,” murmured Tommy. “I passed two Johnnies in the street to-day talking about some one called Jane Finn. Did you ever hear such a name?”
But at that moment two elderly ladies rose and collected parcels, and Tuppence deftly ensconced herself in one of the vacant seats.
Tommy ordered tea and buns. Tuppence ordered tea and buttered toast.
“And mind the tea comes in separate teapots,” she added severely.
Tommy sat down opposite her. His bared head revealed a shock of exquisitely slicked-back red hair. His face was pleasantly ugly—nondescript, yet unmistakably the face of a gentleman and a sportsman. His brown suit was well cut, but perilously near the end of its tether.
They were an essentially modern-looking couple as they sat there. Tuppence had no claim to beauty, but there was character and charm in the elfin lines of her little face, with its determined chin and large, wide-apart grey eyes that looked mistily out from under straight, black brows. She wore a small bright green toque over her black bobbed hair, and her extremely short and rather shabby skirt revealed a pair of uncommonly dainty ankles. Her appearance presented a valiant attempt at smartness.
The tea came at last, and Tuppence, rousing herself from a fit of meditation, poured it out.
“Now then,” said Tommy, taking a large bite of bun, “let’s get up-to-date. Remember, I haven’t seen you since that time in hospital in 1916.”
“Very well.” Tuppence helped herself liberally to buttered toast. “Abridged biography of Miss Prudence Cowley, fifth daughter of Archdeacon Cowley of Little Missendell, Suffolk. Miss Cowley left the delights (and drudgeries) of her home life early in the war and came up to London, where she entered an officers’ hospital. First month: Washed up six hundred and forty-eight plates every day. Second month: Promoted to drying aforesaid plates. Third month: Promoted to peeling potatoes. Fourth month: Promoted to cutting bread and butter. Fifth month: Promoted one floor up to duties of wardmaid with mop and pail. Sixth month: Promoted to waiting at table. Seventh month: Pleasing appearance and nice manners so striking that am promoted to waiting on the Sisters! Eighth month: Slight check in career. Sister Bond ate Sister Westhaven’s egg! Grand row! Wardmaid clearly to blame! Inattention in such important matters cannot be too highly censured. Mop and pail again! How are the mighty fallen! Ninth month: Promoted to sweeping out wards, where I found a friend of my childhood in Lieutenant Thomas Beresford (bow, Tommy!), whom I had not seen for five long years. The meeting was affecting! Tenth month: Reproved by matron for visiting the pictures in company with one of the patients, namely: the aforementioned Lieutenant Thomas Beresford. Eleventh and twelfth months: Parlourmaid duties resumed with entire success. At the end of the year left hospital in a blaze of glory. After that, the talented Miss Cowley drove successively a trade delivery van, a motor-lorry and a general! The last was the pleasantest. He was quite a young general!”
“What blighter was that?” inquired Tommy. “Perfectly sickening the way those brass hats drove from the War Office to the Savoy , and from the Savoy to the War Office!”
“I’ve forgotten his name now,” confessed Tuppence. “To resume, that was in a way the apex of my career. I next entered a Government office. We had several very enjoyable tea parties. I had intended to become a land girl, a postwoman, and a bus conductress by way of rounding off my career—but the Armistice intervened! I clung to the office with the true limpet touch for many long months, but, alas, I was combed out at last. Since the